IPTV upstarts seeing global success

New IPTV entrants are winning over subscribers from established pay-TV providers, particularly in Brazil and Russia, says Infonetics Research.

The research points to Russia’s Rostelecom, Brazil’s GVT and Dutch provider KPN as notable new players that are posing a challenge to incumbents. In one year, KPN saw a jump of 77 per cent in IPTV subscribers. GVT saw a 62 per cent increase, and Rostelecom a 42 per cent increase. Deutsche Telekom’s Eastern European divisions are also gaining IPTV subscribers at a healthy rate, according to Infonetics.

China Telecom is the world leader in telco IPTV subscribers, with 20.5 million subs as of the fourth quarter of 2012. Globally, the top 5 cable pay-TV providers by subscribers are Comcast, Jiangsu Cable TV, Guangdong Cable TV, Shandong Cable TV and Sichuan Cable TV. DirecTV in the U.S. is number one in satellite pay-TV subscribers, followed by DISH Network, British Sky Broadcasting and DirecTV Latin America; the operators together accounted for 55 million subscribers in Q4 2012.

“We continue to see strong growth among telco IPTV upstarts, like Rostelecom in Russia, GVT in Brazil, KPN in the Netherlands and providers in Eastern Europe where competition for new pay-TV subscribers is particularly fierce,” said Jeff Heynen, principal analyst for broadband access and pay TV at Infonetics Research. “Our Pay TV Database gets the point across that telcos in both emerging and mature markets can do well, even when the market is saturated with cable and satellite providers.”